


Second Verse, Same as the First

by neierathima



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, implied pre-derek/stiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-12
Updated: 2012-08-12
Packaged: 2017-11-12 00:22:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/484560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neierathima/pseuds/neierathima
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek gets a chance to go back and stop the fire that killed his family, but the rules of the deal are he can't seek out the pack he made for himself in Beacon Hills. Mostly, it's about Derek learning to live with himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Verse, Same as the First

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a prompt from the teen wolf kink meme:  
> "Through some contrivance (I don't even care if this part appears), Derek is offered a deal by some powerful supernatural being (fairy, witch, whatever). The deal is this: he can choose one moment in the past to go back to and change...either the moment Kate Argent got her hooks into him, or the moment that Lydia got the drop on him and resurrected Peter in the last ep. "
> 
> I fail angst forever. 
> 
> Generally assumes this is in the Supernatural world, so there are demons and other wee supernatural beasties running around. Justify Heart however you like, if you choose to think about it.

"Do we have a deal?" 

Derek closes his eyes. Breathes deeply the scents of his pack. Of his betas. It's the last time he's going to get a chance. 

"Yes." 

He doesn't doubt that this is the right thing to do. It hurts like losing his family a second time, but he understands the difference now between something hurting because he's done wrong and something hurting because he's done right. This was his mistake that he's fixing. He has to. 

The thing claps its hands and his mind translates the sound into bones breaking or gunshots. Then the magic washes over him and it feels clean like healing. 

Good hurt, he tells himself. 

He closes his eyes.

  
*******   


When he opens them, he's standing in the parking lot of the high school. The sun is shining, people are walking around him. Nothing is wrong. He remembers this day. It's the end of his first month of high school. He'd hated it. Laura was supposed to pick him up, but she'd ditched him to hang out with a boy. And then…

Right on cue, a fast red car pulls up to the curb in front of him. 

"Hey there cutie. You look a little lost. Need a ride?" 

She's every bit as beautiful as he remembers. 

"No." 

He can smell her frustration as he walks away from the beautiful woman in the fast red car. Once he gets far enough away from the school he starts running and he doesn't stop until he's on his knees in front of his mother, arms around her waist, telling her everything.

  


*******  


His mother believes him, because his mother is his Alpha and she could ( _can, he’s going to have to get used to the present tense again_ ) smell out a lie better than anyone he’s ever met. He doesn’t know what happens to Kate, except that Chris Argent comes and then she’s gone. They keep him out of the way. He isn’t sure what they’re afraid he’ll do, but then, neither is he.

When he tries to tell his parents the names of his pack the magic rises up in his throat, choking him. He keeps his mouth shut after that. 

One day, he hears Melissa McCall arguing with her husband in the grocery store and nearly has a panic attack. When his uncle asks him what’s wrong, he sees a different Peter and then he really does panic. 

After that, he doesn’t say anything at all. 

His parents send him to a friendly pack out in Montana. He goes to the tiny high school it takes an hour’s drive to reach from the house he stays in. He writes all has assignments down and doesn’t talk. He knows the Montana pack is telling his parents how he spends most of his time out in the forests, running. 

He still feels guilty for a fire that only he remembers, but now he feels guilty for the pack-that-isn’t-anymore. 

Will Erica ever break out of the shell of her own body? 

Will anyone save Isaac from the cruelty of his father? 

Will Boyd always be alone? 

Will Scott always think of himself as a boy who can’t run? 

Will Allison grow up to be a weapon? 

Will Jackson wonder who he is forever? 

Will Lydia pretend to be stupid until she starts to believe it? 

Will Stiles spend the rest of his life waiting for a chance to be a hero? 

He doesn’t have the answers, so he keeps his mouth shut.

  
*******  


None of the Montana pack show up for his graduation, but he spots a sleek black Camaro in the parking lot afterwards, Laura leaning against it. For six years, she was his Alpha. He sees the shadow of the woman she was-but-wasn’t and the one she will be in her gentle smile and stern eyes.

He walks up to her, standing just inside of her slightly longer reach, tilting his head down and to the left. She curls her hand on his neck, thumb rubbing along his pulse. 

“Vacation’s over, kid.” 

When he gets in the car, his things are already piled in the back seat. He hums along to the radio as Laura drives.

  
*******  


Being back in Beacon Hills is nothing like he expects. His mother keeps him busy, shoving books into his hands at every opportunity and sending him to lessons with Deaton. Pretty soon he knows as much about every kind of supernatural creature, werewolf history and lore, and pack politics as anyone in the family. Shortly after that, he knows more.

When he’s not busy with lessons, he ends up watching the younger kids. He doesn’t mean to start talking again, but Jason has just his the “why” stage and seems to think Derek knows everything. At first he only talks to the children, but then it’s just easier to answer an adult’s questions when they ask how the kids are. 

He still doesn’t talk much. 

It takes him almost a year before he realizes that his parents are grooming him to be the perfect Beta to Laura’s Alpha. He spends two days in the woods freaking out before deciding he likes the way second-in-command fits.

  
*******  


Around the time Laura didn’t-die a witch in a nearby town starts using omegas as lackeys. The Argents come to town and during the careful negotiations between the Hunters and the Hale Pack Derek stands behind his father, silent, not shaking with the terror he feels.

The first full moon he remembers spending alone comes and goes. Scott McCall isn’t a werewolf, although at the almost-friendly meetings his father has with Chris Argent, he hears the Mrs. Argent still doesn’t think much of the boy dating her daughter. 

He stays away from anything that sounds like gossip about his pack.

  
*******  


Another year passes, and Derek is starting to get a reputation among the packs. He’s a walking library of supernatural phenomena, not just relating to werewolves. The people who come to for help don’t need to know his compulsive self education is paranoia about all the things that could try to hurt his pack. His mother just nods and tells him it’s good to have people owe the pack favors. He even spends a couple of months with a Hunter in South Dakota who doesn’t care that he rarely talks. The rest of his pack acknowledged that the library in the Pack House is his territory. He tries not to think about how much Stiles would love all the knowledge.

He also starts going with Laura when she travels as a representative of the Hale Pack. It’s amazing to see her negotiate, knowing just what to say and when in the way he never could. She’s going to be a great Alpha one day and he is fiercely loyal to her.

  
*******  


It never occurs to him that his pack would manage to get into trouble without him.

  
*******  


There’s a demon in Beacon Hills, or at least, Derek is pretty sure there is. He knows it has something to do with the shit the Hunters are dealing with. The packs are staying out of it, keeping their heads down and not getting involved.

Derek, specifically, has been ordered to pass the information off to the Argents and leave it alone. He promised he would, which is why no one in the Pack is going to realizes that he’s in an abandoned warehouse confronting a demon until it’s too late. 

He scrambles backwards, away from the demon, not even trying to fight it. He wishes he could remember an exorcism. He’s not even sure it would work for a werewolf. He’s wondering at the fact the actually doesn’t feel guilty about anything more than being an idiot when the demon hits an invisible wall and falls backward. 

The demon is cursing, looking around, and Derek gets to his feet. Demon inflicted wounds apparently don’t heal that fast. 

Out of the shadows a group of teens emerges and Derek is so completely stunned he can’t think of a single thing to say. He even forgets the demon for a moment because this is his _pack_ and he wants to howl in triumph. Instead he just gapes at each of them in turn. 

There’s Lydia, standing between a crossbow wielding Allison and a confidant Erica, holding hands and chanting softly. 

There’s Isaac, who doesn’t look afraid at all, and Boyd at his back, both of them holding super soakers of all things. 

There’s Scott, holding a book in one hand and his inhaler in the other. He takes a quick puff and stands his ground. 

There’s Jackson shoulder to shoulder with the boy Derek vaguely remembers is named Danny, the two of them wielding matching knives. 

And sliding up next to him is Stiles, looking exactly like Derek remembers. Stiles is opening his mouth and Derek knows - _remembers_ \- that look, Stiles is about to start mouthing off to something bigger than him so Derek does what he always does, he plants himself between Stiles and the demon. 

Stiles doesn’t even flinch, just stretches out the circle until there’s room for Derek in it. 

And then the girls start chanting louder and the demon screams and somebody is calling an ambulance for the man lying on the ground moaning in pain.

  
*******  


If he’d thought about it even a little bit, dragging Stiles and his band of demon-fighting teenagers to the Pack House might not have been his first move. Derek is not prone to letting his impulses rule him, but he just can’t seem to help himself. His packs are going to meet. For the first time in nearly fourteen years, everything seems like it could be ok. He didn’t break the rules of the deal, and he lets himself believe he can _have this_.

As it turns out, his parents and the Hunters were aware that a third group had been starting to clean up the supernatural messes that have been cropping up around Beacon Hills in the past year or so, they just couldn’t figure out who it was. 

They are less than amused to find out it’s a bunch of teenagers.  
(Listening to his mother and Chris Argent explain to his pack just how dangerous and irresponsible what they’ve been doing is sends a twist of guilt at what he allowed them - encouraged them - to do when he was Alpha. The feeling is fleeting and serves more as a reminder of how not to do things in the future.) 

Eventually, parents start to get called, and Derek walks off into the woods until he can’t hear the voices inside anymore. Reality has come crashing back in and he feels familiar panic welling up inside him. 

He tells himself they don’t know him. That they have no reason to trust him, let alone want to be in his pack. And it isn’t even his pack, it’s Laura’s, and would she want a bunch of teens following her around? Would they want to follow her orders? 

The urge to run is crawling under his skin, making him feel like if he could just run far enough, fast enough, he can get away from the little voice that sounds like Kate telling him he can’t ever make this work. 

“Wow, when you bring in recruits, you don’t go halfway, do you?” 

He spins around, ashamed that Laura has managed to sneak up on him. She’s leaning against a tree, pointedly ignoring the way he’s panicking. With effort, he slows his heart and his breathing to a normal pace. She doesn’t acknowledge it except to start speaking again. 

“I mean, they clearly need some work, but they’ve got potential. I think even Mrs. Argent is impressed. Which ones do you think will want the bite?” 

It takes him a minute to realize that she’s asking for his opinion as her Beta, and not as someone who knows the teens already. That doesn’t mean he can’t give her the benefit of his experience. 

“Scott and Erica both have medical conditions which could be healed with the bite. Isaac would make a good wolf. Jackson might want it, but he could have control issues. Lydia is immune, and Allison’s parents would never allow it. Danny I don’t know about, and Boyd could go either way.” 

Laura doesn’t ask where he gets his information. She never does. 

“And Stiles? He does seem like he’s in charge.” 

Derek shakes his head. Stiles had never wanted to be in charge, he’d just wanted to be listened to. 

“You can ask, but I think he’ll say no.” 

Laura nods, then cocks her head. A second later, Derek can hear footsteps through the trees. 

“Guess you’ve got another appointment lined up. I’m going to go convince mom and dad this was our totally awesome plan and not you being a complete moron. We’ll finish this later.” 

She turns back towards the house, only stopping to tell the other person something Derek can’t make out. A moment later Stiles steps through the trees and then he and Derek are alone in the clearing. 

Derek doesn’t know what to say. The last time he saw Stiles before this night the boy was bleeding out in a different part of the woods. He remembers the smell of his blood and screaming for Stiles to run which, of course, he didn’t do. 

He says nothing. Stiles rubs the back of his head, looking awkward. 

“So, sourwolf, this puts me at least two up on who’s saved who. And seriously, I thought it was the whole tragic backstory, but your face just looks like that, doesn’t it? I’m kind of disappointed, I was seriously expecting whistling and frolicking with bunnies.” 

At some point, Derek tells himself, he will get used to being surprised. 

“ _What?_ You remember? How?” 

Stiles shrugs. 

“Well, Scott sort of got possessed. That’s how we found out about the whole bumps-in-the-night stuff. And then there was this evil witch who needed to do some kind of mojo to get knowledge only it involved sacrificing some people who were high on this magic dust. So me and Lydia were drugged and ended up remembering a bunch of stuff that didn’t happen? Or I guess did happen, but you did something to fix it, didn’t you? Anyway, after that, we kind of noticed weird things were happening all over the place, and we couldn’t just leave it alone.” 

That part Derek is not the least bit surprised about. 

“You could have gotten hurt.” 

Stiles rolls his eyes like he always does when Derek is giving orders that he thinks are stupid. In a way, it’s the most familiar gesture he’s seen in a long time. On top of everything else, Derek has someone who remembers the parts of him that he thought were nothing more than ghosts rattling around in his own head. 

“I told you to run.” 

"Because I am totally in the habit of doing what you say. Seriously, that ordering me around thing is going to work even less now that you aren’t the Alpha."

They walk back to the house together, side by side, knuckles brushing. If he were the Alpha, he would push Stiles away, put a safe amount of space between them. 

He isn’t the Alpha, so he twines his fingers with Stiles’, holding on.


End file.
